


In Their Perspective,

by Glitched_Fox



Series: The New Squidbeak Splatoon (and Associates) [1]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: ...with a few creative liberties, 3 is referred to with she and 8 with they in this fic, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, During Canon, Gen, No Dialogue, Not Shippy, Octo Expansion DLC, Octo Expansion DLC Spoilers, but if you wanna read it that way i cant stop you i guess. they're both around 16/17 so, i know that's weird for me lol, surprisingly!, they're both nonbinary but uhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:48:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27126775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glitched_Fox/pseuds/Glitched_Fox
Summary: In their perspective, Agent 3 is practically a myth. Eight knows they've met her before, but she's talked about so much, she hardly feels real.But the blender falling apart around Eight and the captain—nowthat'sreal.Which means the Inkling laying on the ground is, too. Eight doesn't know what to make of her.
Relationships: Agent 3 & Agent 8 (Splatoon)
Series: The New Squidbeak Splatoon (and Associates) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1988203
Kudos: 14





	In Their Perspective,

**Author's Note:**

> first splatoon fic let's gooooo
> 
> anyway this is literally all just eight thinking about what they've heard about three and comparing it to what they get to see during the octo expansion. it's not much, it's just me tryna get a grasp on these characters because i love them and want to write more with them lol

For a moment, all that Eight heard was the echo of shattering glass.

Then, like a switch had been flipped, the sounds of the area crashed back onto them. The telephone was spitting out static, someone was yelling over the CQ-80, the train’s engine thundered from somewhere down the track. Eight forced themself to their feet, wiped away ink from their jaw, and pulled a shard of glass from their leg. The tinny voices over the communicator continued, shouting and squabbling in a language Eight wasn’t entirely fluent in, speaking much too fast for them to pick up on anything. They looked down. Fragments of glass and plastic covered the floor, the thangs they’d worked so hard to get scattered about, broken. 

And there, in the midst of it all, was an Inkling. 

She was collapsed on the ground, surrounded by shattered glass, just a pace or two away from where Eight was standing. Her eyes were shut tight, just white lines against her strange mask. The captain was standing over her, talking, slipping between the language of Inklings and that of the Octarians. The only word Eight caught out of any of it was a number. 

Three.

Eight looked back at the unconscious Inkling. This was Agent 3? The same Agent 3 the captain never stopped talking about? They could see it, if they tilted their head and squinted. Their memories of her were hazy, but from what they _did_ remember, her tentacles were styled the same, her skin was the same color, and the scar on her face was all-too-familiar. The cape over her shoulders was a bit more tattered than Eight remembered, but the marking on the back of it was still distinct. 

But… the Three that Eight remembered had never looked so… vulnerable. The Three they knew was a force to be reckoned with. A myth, a living legend, who tore through the kettles as if they were a walk along the beach. The agent who’d taken out more Octarians than Eight could count. The agent who could destroy an entire team of elite Octolings and escape with the whole school of Zapfish they’d been guarding before they could respawn. The agent who’d given Eight nightmares for weeks, and those all ended the same—with Eight staring down the barrel of a Hero Shot, waking up just as Three pulled the trigger.

 _This_ Three, the Three laying on the floor right now, was more passive than Eight ever imagined they could be. This Three hit her head and was down for the count, fingertips twitching like she was having a bad dream. Ink dripped from her body, form almost struggling to hold together—a sign of poor health and stress in those old enough to otherwise control their forms. It always felt childish, though, trying desperately to stay in bipedal form, like one was learning how to shift forms all over again.

…

How old _was_ Agent 3, anyway?

Eight always assumed they were an adult, a battle-hardened soldier who'd been an agent for years. But… right now, passed out…

Agent 3 looked an awful lot like a child.

She was really just a kid.

Dread settled in Eight's chest along with the realization. They themself may not have been that far off from Three’s age, but the idea of a _kid_ doing everything that Three did just didn’t sit right with them. 

The others were still talking. Eight heard someone mention a CQ-80. They looked up for a moment, then followed the captain’s gaze to a blue device laying beside Three. She had dropped it when she fell, obviously. Someone was saying it was an employee model. Eight recognized it, their mind shoving one of their clouded memories to the front. The discomfort in their gut twisted like a knife.

Only high ranking Octarians held those models, dictated by the symbol on the bottom. Those Octarians would have battle training, and guards, and be working on some level deep within the facility if their prior experience was anything to go off of. The device was small, but there was a lot of information on it, and Three would have had to go through living hell to get her hands on it. Even for the legendary Agent 3…

Eight was no stranger to difficult tasks. They’d been spending days doing nothing but those ridiculous tests, after all. 

But at least when they failed a test, they had a respawn point. Sneaking through an Octarian facility, the Inkling opportunities to have that luxury were few and far between.

The captain waved his hand in front of Eight’s face to get their attention, then motioned up to the hole in the ceiling. Oh.

It was time to go.

They were escaping.

They didn’t have much time to think about it, immediately following instructions by ducking into their octopus form and super-jumping up into the ceiling.

Everything that followed was a whirlwind. Between sneaking past the guards, avoiding lasers, jumping between pillars—there was a lot going on. The entire time, there was just one thought keeping Eight moving:

They were going to get to see the sun.

Finally, they all but collapsed onto that elevator. Marina and Pearl were chattering idly over the communicator. Eight, once again, failed to process any of their conversation. Eight rolled onto their side as their breathing evened out (they would’ve loved to roll onto their back, but their back was still stinging from the sanitized bombs and their pack was in the way), a smile starting to take over their features. They were almost there. They’d be free soon.

Then the elevator stopped.

And then, Agent 3 was staring down at Eight. Again.

Now, _this_ was the Three that Eight knew. The Three with bloodlust in her eyes, tossing specials left and right. She’d stop at nothing to get what she wanted. She’d stop at nothing to stop Eight.

But… that wasn’t who Three was, even now. 

This was the work of that disgusting, acidic goop dripping from the right side of her head. This was the work of that stupid telephone. This wasn’t Three.

Three was just a kid.

She didn’t mean any of it.

Eight decided, that once they saved her, they’d forgive her.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! comments are greatly appreciated! check me out on tumblr, @glitched-fox or @digital-papercut


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